Tag Archives: Australia

Our month in Malawi was like nothing else. We’d seen so much and loved having the time to soak up the culture of this wonderful country. We’d also spent A LOT of time in terrible transport and very basic accommodation, so we decided to enjoy a little luxury in Lilongwe for a couple of days before moving on to Zambia.

There wasn’t a whole lot to report from our time in Lilongwe, except for an attempted pickpocketing incident as soon as we stepped off they minibus. In fact, we weren’t going to write a blog from here at all. And then we meet Vittoria.

Vittoria is an Italian Australian woman who was staying in our guest house. As tends to happen when we meet Aussies abroad, we got talking about what an embarrassment Tony Abbott is.

As it turns out, Vittoria was in Lilongwe for a very sad reason. A few years ago, after completing a world record breaking quad bike ride (and raising $100,000 for OXFAM), her son Daniel was struck by a speeding car and killed. She was in Lilongwe to prepare a ceremony in his honour.

Continuing his charity work, the foundation works with refugees, asylum seekers and other disadvantaged groups around Sydney. We were amazed by Vittoria’s strength and her ability to turn her loss into a gift.

Sadly, our highly-relaxing month long stop in Australia has come to an end. The last fortnight being topped off of course by seeing Laura’s little sister get married, which was a party we are still recovering from! However one thing which has surprised us both after so many years away, is that we are now kind of looking forward to moving back here on a more permanent basis in the future…

It’s been lovely to spend 2 weeks catching up with Leckie’s family and friends. We are so lucky that his parents live just outside Melbourne in the Yarra Valley tourist zone. Between all the catch ups and introductions, we had a chance to see some of what’s on offer for tourists in the area.